Sep 17, 2013 03:17 PM
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Samskara is all about the dilemmas in the life of people in adhering to the dogma of Hindu religion and so called upper caste people who proclaim themselves to be the messengers of Gods words. These upper caste people consider themselves as pure, chaste, chant mantras so that the lower caste people would receive the divine blessings. They perform the rituals not knowing the real meaning or the Samskara in them. They think that their purity would be lost if they touch or mingle with the other caste people. They don’t even realize that the other caste people are also created by Gods divine plan. They don’t even help their own people when they are really in need because they think that it would reduce their Samskara and make them less Samskara.
This is the dilemma that the Praneshacharya faces in the case of performing the final rights for the dead body of another brahmin Naranappa who spent his life with a lower caste woman Chandri and could not adhere to orthodox Brahmin rituals and practices. As the story unfolds itself we come to understand that it is Chandri with the help of a Muslim man performs the last rights for Naranappa. Ironically, it is a Brahmin man who in the name of the Samskara becomes the cause for the epidemic in that place by neglecting the dead corpse, decaying and destroying God given natural gifts and becomes the victim of fear, death and destruction. So the dilemma in the mind of the Praneshacharya is the dilemma in the Brahmin Samskara itself.
That may be one of the reasons why even the Guru who seems to be the epitome of purity and chastity could not resolve the problem of Naranappa and engulfed in the quagmire of sensuous pleasures. Samskara is also the dilemma of all most all the Brahmins who could never be humane to other people in the guise of Gods Chosen people. Orthodox or heterodox let people be human first.
M. JAYARANJAN.
Asst.Professor,
V.R.Siddhartha engineering college.
